DuPage County approves mosque

The Dupage County Board has approved a proposal to build a mosque in unincorporated Willowbrook.

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Backers of the mosque had been struggling to get their proposal through the Dupage County Board for several months. Today, they jumped over their biggest hurdle when the Board voted 13 to 5 allowing the mosque to be built in west suburbs.

The group is called the Muslim Educational Cultural Center of America, or MECCA.

Dupage Board member Rita Gonzalez of the 1st district voted in favor of the plan. She says MECCA went above and beyond in their proposal.

"MECCA is going to be putting in an estimated $600,000 to deal with certain issue that are actually going to benefit the neighborhood as opposed to had some developer come in and put in other buildings or homes on that land. This benefit would not occur for the neighborhood," she said.

MECCA plans to move out of their current commercial office space. The group can now apply for a building permit to proceed with the project.

A correction has been made to this story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated whether the most current MECCA proposal included a minaret and dome. The DuPage County Board approved a project without either of these.